Towards effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province

Abstract

This thesis describes the research carried out in the three education and training innovative projects which are the cases of this study, namely: African Pathways, Ikhwelo and LoveLife. The research was conducted in the context of the on-going research activities of the programme of Adult Education of the University of Limpopo. The aim of the study was to gain insight into current practices and strategies which might be effective when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. I also intended to investigate the factors that determine the success and failure of education and training innovative projects in a developing context.

In order to achieve the aims outlined above, I formulated the following main research questions:

• What are the effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province? • What are the factors that determine the success and/or failure of education and training innovative projects in a developing context?

This study seeks answers to the above-mentioned research questions. Hence it addresses issues that not only need considerable development and further inquiry for advancing the academic debate, but are also relevant for practitioners who are working in the field and facing these challenges.

In trying to answer the questions outlined above, I decided to undertake a multiple case study to investigate three education and training innovative projects which are the cases of the study. This study had elements of development, implementation and evaluation designs. It was also the intention of the study to describe the three educational projects and the real-life context in which they occurred.

It was the objective of this study to develop success indicators of education and training innovative projects. These success indicators could possibly lead to a model which could be useful for the establishment and sustenance of innovative projects in a developing context.

Chapter two outlines the theoretical framework of the study. Based on the readings of the relevant literature, and preliminary discussions with experts in the fields of innovation and action research, it appeared that for any innovation to succeed factors that determine and influence sustainability need to be taken into consideration. Hence there has been a discussion about factors that contribute to, and influence the sustainability of education and training innovative projects. Critical factors such as: Local context, ownership, bottom-up strategy, cross-sectoral collaborations and effective communication channels were discussed in detail in this chapter. I have also outlined the theoretical model which is essential when investigating the success factors and indicators for education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The chapter concludes with a discussion about a young adult in the South African context, views about social exclusion and lifelong learning.

In Chapter three, I describe the design of the study. The main focus of this chapter was to discuss the two tracks of data collection. The first track had to do with fieldwork while the second track was about the mini-conference or the focus group interview of the study. An explanation and discussion of the instruments that were utilised to collect data from different role players in various phases of data collection is also given. I further explain how the data that has been collected from various phases was analysed using qualitative data analysis methods. The chapter concludes by discussing what I call ‘reflections’, a section that was about my main learning areas and the difficulties that I encountered during the process of this research.

Chapter four presents the empirical results of the study. It gives an account of the strategies that might be effective when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. In this chapter I present an overview of the three projects, that is, African Pathways, Ikhwelo and loveLife, which are the cases of this study. A description of programmes which are offered in each project of this study is given. I also indicate the aims and objectives of each project. The chapter further discusses issues around staffing and learners in each project. I have also outlined in detail the views of the interviewees in relation to the critical factors of this study. The chapter concludes by discussing the findings of observations based on each project of the study.

Chapter five is a cross-case analysis of the projects. The intention was to compare and contrast cases based on the critical factors of the study, while trying to determine the effective strategies for the development and implementation of education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. During this process, I have been careful in preserving each individual case’s uniqueness with the need to understand generic processes at work across cases.

In chapter six, I discuss further the empirical results of the study. It is based on the mini-conference or the focus group meeting that I held with the Project Managers and Educators in the Adult Education Resource Centre of the University of Limpopo. This chapter gives an account of factors that determine the success and/or failure of the education and training innovative projects in a developing context.

The final chapter (seven) presents the final conclusion and recommendations of this study. This chapter integrates the information from previous chapters in discussing effective strategies which are useful when developing and implementing the education and training innovative projects in the Limpopo Province. It also provides suggestions which might contribute towards the development and implementation of more effective strategies of education and training innovative projects in a developing context. The chapter concludes by mentioning issues that need to be further researched, as the ABET field seems to be under-researched, particularly the area of education and training innovative projects.